


I’m Quiet You Know, You Make the First Impression

by Trytoescapeit



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Humor, I Tried, M/M, One Shot, Strangers to Lovers, and i used some british lingo because it’d’ve been weird if i made louis call football soccer, i guess but there more of friends that kiss, i had to do some research on Manchester United, louis just wanted to sleep, so everyone but L and H are mild, when they kick the ball into the net that’s a golly right?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 05:18:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6691228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trytoescapeit/pseuds/Trytoescapeit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"...But like, addressing the elephant in the room, what're you planning on doing with all those snacks?" </p><p>Harry perks up at that, looking very proud of himself as he says, "Vending machine's glass is broken," matter-of-factly. His smile seems to grow with every word he pushes out. </p><p>Louis jolts off of the lumpy couch, "well why're you just saying so now?" He makes to sprint out of the room in search of some free snacks when he hears Harry calling out his name. </p><p>"Yeah?" He stops at the entrance to look back at Harry. He's gnawing on his bottom lip nervously. </p><p>"I kind of took all of the good snacks. There're like fig bars," he scrunches his nose at that, "and butter-nutter cookies." </p><p>Or<br/>Louis goes to the student lounge and meets Harry clutching heaps of snacks he stole from the broken vending machine and invites Louis back to his dorm to eat and watch some good ol’ Dawson’s Creek</p>
            </blockquote>





	I’m Quiet You Know, You Make the First Impression

**Author's Note:**

  * For [organicspaceapricot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/organicspaceapricot/gifts).



> tbh this just started as one of my countless blurbs on tumblr in the tags of a sleepy and cuddly looking photoset of Louis so thanks to tumblr user organicspaceapricot (zoie), I wrote this up. Sorry for any mistakes I might’ve, & probably did, make.
> 
> Comment feedback please and leave kudos if you’d like.
> 
> As always, you can find me on tumblr at trytoescapeit where you can talk to anytime and about anything you’d like.  
> Title came from Howie Day’s collide

Louis' tired and the bags under his eyes are just becoming more prominent with every minute that he's  _not_ asleep. He just finished his own version of studying and he's feeling minimally confident of passing his microeconomics exam with a seventy three at best. Rubbing his feet against one another to rejuvenate heat, he's pulling up the covers over his shoulders and the warmth feels so nice curling around his body.  

Closing his eyes for the night, Louis lets out a sleepy sigh and ignores his dorm door creaking open in favor of counting backwards from 100 to 1 so he can fall asleep faster. 

"Don't start," he hears his roommate Niall giggle, "he hasn't slept for days."  

"Oh, is that why he looks like a Tim Burton's character all the time?" Louis doesn''t even have the energy to put Nick in his place, can only muster a single middle finger before he slumps back into his sheets. 

"Hey Lou, s'alright if I turn the light on? Nick and I wanted to play some FIFA for a while?" 

Louis grunts and turns around to face the two shadowed faces, "well why don’t you and your minion play in his room?" 

"His roommate's got someone over," Niall responds just as Nick flicks on the lights with a sly smile. 

"Ugh, Grimshaw," Louis winces, "turn the fucking lights off and go back to that pigstine you call a room." 

"You would know because you spent quite sometime there when you were fu--," 

"Enough," Louis moans as he rips his covers off of himself. He feels the heat he had built leave him all at once and fixes a steely glare on Nick, "I'm going to the lounge. Niall, make sure he doesn't touch my things with his greasy fingers." 

He doesn’t wait for a response, just slips his blue hoodie on and closes the door behind himself before he makes the left turn to the student lounge. The room's dark when he hoists the door open and the chairs and remotes are askew from the last person to pay a visit. Louis' almost positive that there's an extra remote here, in fact. He sits down on the lumpy brown couch and closes his eyes to muster up some drowsiness. He stays with his eyes closed for a while, counting backwards, even makes it to fifty-three, when he gives up and accepts that sleep just isn't coming right now. Letting out a loud groan that echoes throughout the room, he grabs the remote and flicks the button to turn on the television. The screen stays black, not even a glitch to indicate that maybe a cord may have been torn from the cable box by a rowdy student. He turns the remote over and pops open the back to find both batteries missing and a note scrawled on the back in sloppy writing saying 'somewhere in the cushions, soz'. 

And Louis, Louis can't even say he's surprised. He sticks his hand into the cushions ignoring the wrappers stuffed there until he feels two cold miniature cylinders. The television flicks on finally when he's done inserting the things and pressing the button. He doesn’t even have to think before he's pressing the sports channel. Reruns of Manchester United are playing, Ander Herrera kicks the ball and all Louis sees is a blur as he dashes across the field. He wishes he'd brought his glasses with him. Herrera kicks the ball into the net cleanly and Louis offers up a whispered  _whoo_ until he hears crinkles coming from his peripheral that startles him. He whips his head to the table hidden in the back of the couch to find a boy, student rather, with a funny smile on his face and a heap of crisps and candies scattered around the wooden circular table. Some snacks that lay on his lap fall onto the floor with a crinkle and the guy absolutely looks like he's suppressing his giddiness if the way his eyes are shining is any indication. 

"Planning on getting diabetes tonight, Curly?" Louis asks with a raise of his eyebrow. Listen, Louis Tomlinson is number one fan of junk foods at one in the morning and maybe some after that but this, this is just excessive. The boy lets out a genuine laugh that ends in breathlessness and a pant for air at the end. He smiles at Louis like they're good friends and Louis hasn't just made fun of his eating habits. He tightens his hold on the snacks that are clutched in his arms. Louis obviously returns the smile. 

"M'Harry," The boy introduces. His jaw moves periodically before he blows a bubble that pops all around his mouth and some on his nose, "I thought that was going to come out way cooler than what it did." Harry tags on a shrug at the end like he doesn't really mind having pink stickiness on his face in front of a stranger. His deep blush argues otherwise but Louis' quite intrigued so he mimics the shrug. 

"I'm Louis," he says in lieu of a response. 

"I know," Harry smirks good-naturedly. When Nick smirks at him, it seems animalistic but that's probably because Nick is just naturally an animal, but when Harry does it, it's all playful, like a joke he's trying to portray silently. 

"I don't think we've met," Louis pouts over the low cheers coming from the TV. He partially wants to know who's just made a golly but partially wants to not break this eye contact he has with Harry. 

"Oh," Harry seems to have blushed a deeper pink as his face twists in an uncomfortable smile, "um, well no, no we haven't, like, met properly. You're friends with my mate Zayn, yeah? And he takes me to your soccer, sorry  _football_ , practices and games. You're great by the way, he's always talking about you." 

"That's horrible," Louis says, "why hasn't he introduced us? He hasn't even mentioned you, can you believe that?" Louis is greatly offended and semi embarrassed about Zayn talking about him so often. 

"Oh, wait," Louis snaps his fingers at a foggy memory, "unless you're the one that ate a grasshopper milkshake and then vomited all over the bed sheets? You're his roommate, right?" 

Harry's smile completely drops from his face that's flushed of all color, "seriously, that's all you've heard of me? I didn't even know it had insects in it, I wouldn't have eaten it. Whatever, it was good so there's that."   
 

"He might've told me some good stuff about you but as your luck would have it, I only remember the funny things he tells me and I was crying in tears by the end of that story. But like, addressing the elephant in the room, what're you planning on doing with all those snacks?" 

Harry perks up at that, looking very proud of himself as he says, "Vending machine's glass is broken," matter-of-factly. His smile seems to grow with every word he pushes out. 

Louis jolts off of the lumpy couch, "well why're you just saying so  _now_?" He makes to sprint out of the room in search of some free snacks when he hears Harry calling out his name. 

"Yeah?' He stops at the entrance to look back at Harry. He's gnawing on his bottom lip nervously. 

"I kind of took all of the good snack. There's like fig bars," he scrunches his nose at that, "and butter-nutter cookies." Louis' face falls like that of a college student on a budget told that all of the good snacks in the only vending machine on his floor are gone. 

"But if you help me hide them and take them to my dorm, I can share," Harry says, "or to your dorm but you're probably here for a reason." 

"Yeah, Grimshaw's in my room and I don't fancy catching anything he carries." Louis feels like maybe he's said something completely rude. What if Harry is friends with Nick? Or what if he's one of those people who don't appreciate small rants about others? He's just about to apologize and say he'd been kidding when Harry falls into his breathless laughs that he'd just been in moments ago. 

"He gave me," a gaspy laugh,"Nick gave me a cold one time," he locks eyes with Louis, "I've literally caught something from him." 

"I'm sorry to hear that, Curly," Louis sighs, "now what do you say about stuffing those crisps into my sweatpants?" 

Harry gets up and places the chips on the chair he had been occupying, "here's the plan. We're going to tie these barrettes," he shows the many barrettes that around his wrist to Louis, "around the ends of our sweats so nothing falls and then we're going to tuck in our shirts and put some there." 

Louis nods as he relays his plan he'd no doubt been plotting since he robbed the machine, "well shouldn't we open a bag of candy each so if someone stops us, we can just say we just went out to get a snack?" 

"But then they'd question us about the machine when they find out." Harry states as he hands two barrettes to Louis. 

"Okay I have a plan," Louis smiles ruefully, "I can cry on command so I can start crying and you can pretend to console me so we come off as too unstable to be approached." Harry nods frantically as he ties his own sweats to his ankles. He's the first to finish so he watches as Louis bends down and grabs the excess material of his sweatpants and ties the band around it. Harry stops him before he continues. 

"You're doing it all wrong, " Harry says as he leads Louis to sit on the armrest, "god forbid it comes loose and then snacks are falling out of your pants. There's no denying it if the evidence is literally spilling out of you." Harry lifts Louis' legs and fits the barrette over his foot and around his ankles. He repeats the steps to Louis' other leg and if Louis shivers a little when Harry's soft but cold fingers brush against his bare ankles then it's whatever. 

They both tuck in their shirts and start to fill their clothes with snacks. The aluminum edges of the crisps brush against his nipples on their way down and it's distracting but it just  _has_ to be done.When both of their clothes are filled with bags of snacks and they've marched themselves into the empty corridor, Louis begins to sniff. He sniffs and clenches his throat while opening his eyes wide. The first trickle of tears catches Harry off guard if the way Harry stops walking and is looking at Louis with wide eyes is anything to go by. 

"I told you I can cry on command," Louis says as he continues to walk, "lead me to your dorm before these bags give me rashes." He takes hold of Harry's hand, big in his he makes a note of not to forget, and begins to cry a little more hysterically. When they see a person turn onto their corridor, Louis absolutely balls his eyes out and leans all of his weight onto Harry. Harry, the good sport, slings his arm around Louis' waist and repeats soothing and soft  _shhs_ as the person drops their head down and walks past them. It's almost as if the person was embarrassed to intrude; Louis and Harry smile at each other at their success. When Harry stops in front of a room that has a _Z_  and  _H_  on the door done in scotch tape, Louis' relieved they've made it without having to confiscate their snacks. 

The door gives when Harry inserts his key and he's being hauled into the room by his wrist before he knows. The room is cleaner than any room Louis' visited and he finds, confusedly-so, that both beds are empty. 

"Where'd Zayn go?" Louis asks. 

"I think he had a date with Liam earlier so maybe they're having some sort of sleepover."  

"Yeah, a sleepover," Louis mutters as he bends down to untie his pants and let the snacks fall out. Harry does the same with a big smile and grabs his laptop that's lying on his bed. He taps the empty space beside him like he's inviting Louis to lie beside him. Harry scoots over to make more space for him so they're lying parallel. The sheets bunch up under their weight and even more when Louis digs his feet under Harry's calves for warmth. 

"D'you watch the Game of Thrones? Or maybe Supernatural? I have Netflix and HBO GO so I don't have a lot but I can always find something on youtube if I don't have what you want to watch? I think Zayn mentioned that you've been watching Dawson's Creek? I don't think it's on either but I have the DVDs and I can ju--," 

"Dawson's Creek would be great," Louis cuts him off because he's almost positive Harry would continue his rambling until his lungs gave out. Harry leans over him with one hands on the space above his shoulder so he can reach under his bed to retrieve the DVDs. When he comes back up, he drops the cds on his lap and pushes the computer on top of both their laps. The bottom is hot like its been overheated and used for hours straight. Louis takes a heap of the snacks and places them all around the bed. 

"Which season do you want to start from?" 

"Where Joey and Pacey are locked in the supermarket," Louis suggests as he opens Doritos. After Harry slips in a disk and presses play, he follows suit. The room is filled with Joey and Pacey arguing and Harry and Louis munching on chips. Somewhere along the way, their legs get tangled around each others and Louis rests his head on Harry's shoulder as he watches sleepily. 

"Hey, promise not to get mad at me?" Harry asks as he brushes crumbs off of Louis and himself. Louis makes a sound of agreement. 

"I told Zayn not to tell you about me," Harry admits and when he sees Louis' face drop drastically he quickly adds, "because I was nervous and I didn't want to embarrass myself." 

"And here I was planning out my argument with Zayn," Louis smiles a little. He looks sleepy with scruff dotting his chin and the sleeves of his blue sweater hiding his hands. 

"And I interrogated him to find out more about you because I wanted to know what kind of person you were," Harry adds on, a little confident now that he knows Louis' a little sleep-hazed and probably won't remember much of what he's saying. 

"Well that's not very fair," Louis slurs but he's still smiling so Harry figures he can't be that mad. 

"Sorry," Harry mutters as he grabs his blanket that hangs on the foot of his bed. He takes the thing and drapes it over Louis' body. He doesn't pull it over himself in case Louis cares about space while he sleeps. His eyes are closed fully now and he looks quite satisfies with wrappers surrounding them both. 

"Goodnight, Louis," Harry whispers and backs away a little to put distance between them. Small hands reach out to him and urge him to come closer. When Louis lets go, Harry's right up against him from chest to toes. 

"Wish you'd've let him tell me about you a long time ago," Louis sighs and lifts the blanket so Harry can scramble into them. Louis' hands come around his waist and he pushes his face in the crook of his neck. Louis' warm under the sheets and it's really nice to have body heat, Louis Tomlinson's body heat at that, against him.  

Louis slowly lifts his head so he's closer to Harry's face. For a moment, they hold their breaths and Harry's trying not to move a muscle just in case he does something that would suggest he doesn’t want Louis to kiss him because he  _really_ wants Louis to kiss him. As if reading his mind, Louis leans down just then and pecks Harry's mouth. He doesn’t want it to end so fast though so Harry tangles his fingers in Louis' hair and deepens the kiss so his tongue slips into Louis' mouth and runs it against the roof. It makes Louis' jaw slacken a little and pull back with an easy smile adorning his face. 

"Tomorrow," Louis promises as he returns back to his previous position, "Goodnight, Curly." 

Harry kisses his forehead instead of repeating his goodnight and the next day, he wakes up to Louis kissing his neck sloppily. And if he pretend to still be asleep so Louis could continue a while longer then Louis doesn't need to know.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, this was super short  
> Comment please and leave kudos if you’d like  
> Have a nice day/night and sorry if I did the whole soccer/football thing wrong, I’m not much of a soccer fan


End file.
